Building upon the previous and current gusnip work while being aligned with community desires and USDA funding, jackson medical mall foundation's (jmmf) double up food bucks mississippi (dufbm)…

The Jackson Medical Mall Foundation (JMMF) received a $1.62 million Project Grant award dated September 15, 2025, from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (CFDA 10.331) to implement the Double Up Food Bucks Mississippi (DUFBM) program through September 14, 2029. This program directly addresses Mississippi's critical food insecurity challenge, where approximately 1.2 million residents face food insecurity—the highest rate in the nation at 15.3%—with rates varying dramatically by county from 10.2% to 31.6%. The award allocates the majority of direct costs toward nutrition incentives at point of purchase, providing participating Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries with financial incentives to increase fruit and vegetable purchases, while simultaneously generating an estimated $1 million economic boost to Mississippi's food retail economy.

DUFBM expands previous nutrition incentive efforts by establishing partnerships with retailers across diverse firm types—including retail grocery stores, farmers markets, mobile farmers markets, and produce stands—in high food insecurity areas, with particular emphasis on rural accessibility through a new mobile market presence. The program implements an innovative and replicable fruit and vegetable incentive redemption system designed for hard-to-reach communities while maintaining ongoing process evaluation to drive continuous program improvements and outcomes optimization.

Building upon the previous and current gusnip work while being aligned with community desires and USDA funding, jackson medical mall foundation's (jmmf) double up food bucks mississippi (dufbm) program will develop this project. The overarching project goal for this gusnip program is to implement a program design to increase the purchase and consumption of fruits and vegetables forall supplemental nutrition assistance program (snap) participants byallocating the majority of direct costs to nutrition incentives at point of purchase giving an almost one-million-dollar revenue boost to mississippi.jmmf is a 501(c)3 organization that manages the jackson medical mall (JMM) thad cochran center. In 1996, the JMM was transformed from a neglected shopping mall to a modern medical and retail facility addressing the health needs of the underserved, with a focus on social determinants of health. The issue at hand is that in 2024, approximately 1.2 million people are food insecure in mississippi, where the projected rate of food insecurity in 2024 was 15.3%, the highest in the nation. Within the state, the rate varies dramatically by county – from 10.2% in madison county to a shocking 31.6% in holmes county. The lowest projected food insecurity rate for a state in 2024 was 5.4% in new hampshire.through this project, dubfm will expand previous efforts by working with key partners in high food insecurity areas to increase the variety of firms offering the nutrition incentive and building a mobile market presence for snap participants to have more access in rural areas. Throughout this project, dufbm will incorporatean innovative, relevant, and replicable fruit and vegetable incentive redemption system in hard-to-reachcommunities at a variety of firm types including retail grocery stores, farmers markets, mobile farmers market, andproduce stands. We perform ongoing process evaluation to drive decisions and improvements. We are dedicated to bringing together a variety of staff and community partners to achieve our goals. Our systems and team are securely in place to reach our new goals and objectives in a timely and authentic manner, notably toserve snap participants and communities across the great state of mississippi.